FreeWheel Launches DRIVE—a Comprehensive Advertising Solution Designed to Reach Consumers Across the New TV Landscape

FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, announced the launch of FreeWheel’s DRIVE, a suite of advanced advertising solutions designed to help marketers reach consumers across emerging forms of TV, including Over-the-Top (OTT), Set-top Box Video on Demand (STB VOD) and digital video, using advanced data and measurement capabilities.

“The changing consumption pattern of premium video is undeniable and we are very excited at the acceleration of progress in the OTT space”

DRIVE brings simplicity to the complex, “new TV” landscape by allowing buyers to access high-quality, aggregated video inventory—often within the same content available on linear TV—at scale, across a national footprint. DRIVE has the potential to bring unprecedented scale to marketers by aggregating premium video inventory from clients who leverage FreeWheel’s marketplace capabilities. Importantly, DRIVE also removes one of the primary obstacles to OTT and VOD advertising by delivering measurement metrics comparable with linear TV.

“Advertisers need to reach consumers across the new TV viewing options, but they have been thwarted by both operational and technical hurdles,” said David Clark, EVP/General Manager of FreeWheel. “We recognized that FreeWheel, powering nearly every major publisher’s and MVPD’s digital video advertising, was in a unique position to solve these challenges for the industry. That is the goal of FreeWheel’s DRIVE. We listened, and we created a solution for TV’s future.”

FreeWheel’s DRIVE initiative builds upon its work with Nielsen announced in June, to expand measurement to OTT inventory and connected TV video on demand. DRIVE will offer the ability to measure audiences using Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings, which provides a comprehensive view of digital audiences in a way comparable to linear TV. Using FreeWheel’s proprietary methodology, DRIVE enables marketers to assess total TV reach across linear and digital viewing, control reach and frequency, and ultimately, tie outcomes to anonymized, household-level data.

“The changing consumption pattern of premium video is undeniable and we are very excited at the acceleration of progress in the OTT space,” said David Cohen, President N.A., MAGNA, a division of IPG Mediabrands. “The explosion of viewing options makes it difficult to aggregate scale. FreeWheel’s DRIVE gives us the opportunity to optimize video investments across some of the most premium content producers in the industry. It’s a great step forward and a hint of what’s to come in the evolving video ecosystem.”

The suite of DRIVE solutions is powered by FreeWheel Markets’ unified advertising platform, and is consistent with FreeWheel’s goal of creating a platform for the new TV ecosystem. By facilitating data-driven connections between buyers and sellers, the solutions will drive better results for marketers and suppliers alike.

“By removing the barriers holding back advertisers from fully embracing new forms of inventory, the value of that inventory will increase for buyers and sellers alike,” said Noah Levine, SVP, Advertising Data and Technology Solutions, Fox Networks Group. “DRIVE is a great example of using technology to create opportunities that will complement existing advertising streams and raise the bar for the industry.”

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